National Cat Day

Today is National Cat Day and I haven’t properly introduced our fur-babies. My Bengal, Hootie, is 5. He was born 07-11-07 in Oklahoma. He was born flat chested and his leg is kicked out, so he was neutered and sold as a pet quality Bengal. I bought him when he was 7 or 8 months old for $1500. It was a great hardship to afford him, but he’s been worth every penny. He was flown to me and he’s been on my heels ever since.

He’s got several names; Hootie (because he sits on the bed and acts like a guard owl), Hooter, Hoot, Hootmier P Jones, Hooticus Rex, Baby Bug, Buggie, Buggie Bear and Security. We call him security because he’s very protective of me and the house. He patrols the house and seems to have rounds. He alerts us if we’ve left a space heater on and one time even prevented a fire by alerting on a hot circuit under the couch. He also comes running if I squeak or scream and will “yell” at The Sweetness and try to bite him. He’s in charge of bug killing and takes it very seriously. He talks a lot. He’s got something like 103 noises he makes. He and I have a type of shorthand so that we communicate fairly well.

He’s not a lap cat and only tolerates being picked up for about 30 seconds, but he is always in my shadow. He sits under me while I work, follows me everywhere, sleeps on my feet and yells at me if he can see me outside through the windows.

He loves water and always begs us to turn on the faucets or to give him some bathtub water to stomp in.

Lucy-Furr is a black domestic short-hair I adopted from the Humane Society. She was half off because people don’t really want to adopt black cats for various reasons. I was specifically looking for a black cat because I thought it’d be nice to have a friend for Hootie that looked like a miniature black leopard. She was so skinny at the shelter and pitiful. I got her out of the kennel and she wrapped her front paws around my neck and held on. I knew I’d have to adopt her.

She’s put on a good amount of weight and her coat has filled out nicely. She’s learned to play and has actually developed a bit of an attitude and is showing her personality. She is our problem child. Her other names include: Punk, Lucy-Cat, Sparkle-Butt The Wonder Whore (because she had a litter at 8 months old), etc. I have several examples of her attitude:

She’s completely spoiled and sleeps between us at night. She is completely in love with The Sweetness. I think she’d sell her soul to the devil to be human so she could marry him. We had to start putting his clean underwear and shoes in a drawer rather than the closet shelf because she was sleeping in them. She drools whenever he pets her and rubs the top of her head all over the floor.

She is the most loving and cuddly cat I’ve ever seen, but can get grabby about it.

She’s a jerk to Hootie and consistently breaks the rules. She knows the rules, she just gets sneaky about doing bad things. She steals anything of his, whether she wants it or not. She comes whenever he is called to see if she can mooch whatever he’s getting. If he’s getting petted, she runs over and pushes him aside. He tolerates most of this pretty well, but he lets her know when he’s had enough.

They fight, but I think they secretly love each other.

Our two cats are our children, we talk to them and they are constant in our lives. We aren’t even close to thinking about kids yet and I’ve been really put off on children lately seeing them in public. It just seems like anyone I see with kids is miserable. I don’t know why I’d volunteer for this torture, so we’re good with the fur-babies. They’re good practice anyway for both of us. I do think my parenting style is going be similar to how I interact with the cats. I generally explain and redirect the cats rather than spank or yell. Hootie is especially sensitive to correction, so even if you do spank him lightly, he gets hurt feelings for quite some time. Lucy-cat could care less.

One Response to “National Cat Day”

I love this kittie story! These are the most precious babies – I for one am incredibly grateful that they have been with you through thick and thin – especially Hootmier P. Jones (Hootie Sapperticker!). Lucy is lovely – she is very black isn’t she? She looks to be more black than Sneaky Pie Brown was – amazing!